Finally, some progress!!

The previous two or three books have been moving along at snail's pace, frustratingly slow, and with very few major happenings. Knife of Dreams quickly resolves all of the plotlines that have been dangling loose since book 9.

Elayne Trakand finally wins the crown of Andor. Some progress is made with the slowly blossoming relationship between Mat and the Daughter of the Nine Moons, while Perrin Goldeneyes is finally reunited with his fiery falcon of a wife, Faile.

The plot threads here are quicker and more direct, and lead to their inevitable resolution, so not too many surprises. Only major surprise was Rand losing his left hand to Semirrhage.

In this book, it's easy to see, analyse and weigh the merits of careful character-building that sacrifices plot acceleration for vivid literary realism, against simple plot progression.

The characters are greatly improved after the lull of the last two or three books. Elayne is slightly less annoying now. The 50 Shades of Pregnancy reality TV show is almost completely behind us. There are fewer ramblings and lengthy murmurings by characters as many of the minor subplots are finally resolved.

It is by no means the best book in the series, but it's certainly interesting.
RIP Robert Jordan. To think he was able to live long enough to write the spin-off series WoT deserved...